Exciting developments in (Picture) Book Land

July 23, 2025 — I’m delighted to report that interest in hard copy books appears to have a strong and steady heartbeat. Based on the crowds at the Detroit Bookfest on Sunday, July 20, 2025, I’m hopeful and encouraged that real live books are here to stay, at least for now.

Throngs of humans filed past our book table at Eastern Market. I’d say it was a nonstop stream of humanity, which made for great people watching! I haven’t seen an estimated attendance, but they expected it to be the largest turnout ever. A special human of note, visiting from the North Pole, I presume: Santa Claus, with full white beard and rosy cheeked, dressed in a colored Hawaiian shirt and bright red shorts. I noted many fun and interesting T-shirt messages from “Ask me what I’m reading” (he smiled, but didn’t answer) to “I read banned books” (YES!) and “give me all the trigger warnings.”

Our book table was outdoors, near Shed 5. We had light but steady rain off and on for about an hour. Fortunately, we were under our canopy tent. I offered Ed, at the table next to us, our large umbrella, which protected him and his books, a murder mystery set on Mackinac Island, The Grand Secret. Sounds good, it’s always fun to read a story set in familiar territory. I see it has five stars on Amazon. 

At the table on our other side was someone named Autumn, who has a music show called The Sober Shaman on Passenger Radio WHCK. I handed her a QR code that goes to my other son’s LinkTree with links to his music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube (artist name ar•Kade) and social media. She may play some on her show! I handed out dozens of these QR codes (to this point, my other son told me I was being too pushy, yikes). I want to help him get his music “out there.”

Not sure that it was because of me, but his newest song, Cobblestones, plays increased tenfold the following day! From 50something to 500something. Way to go! Also, he was chosen by a popular artist, Michael Minelli, for a gold star song from the submissions he’d received. (Actually, this is probably the reason behind the surge in streams). One new artist from each city of his tour will get to perform a song on his stage! That’s the way to do it, right? It’s not about competition, it’s about giving others a boost up. There’s room for everyone. Anyway, I digress, but wanted to give a shout out here.

Davey and I each sold more books on Sunday than at any other event we’ve attended. I was pleased that my first book, How Happy Is a Lark? sold a few copies. I sold 14 copies of Into the Thicket at the show, seven were to a coworker of Davey’s at Wayne State University, Angela, for her great grandchildren. A beautiful and kind woman. When I asked her how many copies she wanted, she replied, “I have to count.” That got me excited. She didn’t get one per family, but one per child, so they each had their own. She’s a former children’s librarian and she loves my first book. This meant so much to me!

I looked up at a young woman and her friend who approached our table, thinking she looked familiar. She said, “you’re not going to remember me …” and I exclaimed “Celina!” She was in school with Trevor from kindergarten onward. Same sweet face I’d know anywhere. I saw a couple of familiar faces from my previous job. Waved to Justin S. as he walked by. Jason D., who I hadn’t seen since I retired, visited our table with his girlfriend and bought one of each of my books for his nieces and nephews. That was so cool. I had fun signing the books with different little messages.

My friend Heidi showed up with her husband, Bill, and son, Johnny, mostly to see me! Very sweet. Another of my son’s coworkers and her sister were at bookfest, and she bought books. I believe my other sales were to people I didn’t know.

I had rocking dolphins on the table to help catch people’s eyes, and it worked. A couple of people even asked if they could buy it. No (it’s my son’s and although he doesn’t care what happens to it, it’s a good table prop). A good friend, who’s a marketer, suggested having something eye-catching on a book table. My light up moon wasn’t quite bright enough to show off its changing colors, until it got dark and rainy out for a while.

So, perhaps I’m burying the lede, but I’m over the moon about our books! Four boxes arrived last week and Tim recorded me opening the first box. I posted it on my social media with the BookBaby requested hashtag #UnboxYourBooks. That was pretty fun and really captured the happiness and excitement on my face.

Here’s a summary of what’s what with Into the Thicket:

• Available now to purchase on the BookBaby Bookshop. Use code INTRO for $5 off. I’m not happy with the minimum price I was given to charge for the book, so I’ll likely have some promo or other most of the time. They also charge for shipping.
• Into the Thicket should be available for PREORDER soon at the major bookshops like Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell’s Books, Walmart, soon.
• Into the Thicket is availabe for pre PREORDER now through Adventure, Ink. I appreciate them setting this up early.
• The official release date is Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. This is when preorders will ship and Into the Thicket will be for sale online at the major bookstores.
• I’m working on getting it into the same local bookshops and libraries that Lark is in, and some more. I’ll be working on booking some author events and readings. One I know of is at 2 p.m., at Booksweet, Ann Arbor Aug. 22. I’ll be reading from Into the Thicket, answering questions and selling and signing books. I’m really excited to have what will be my first book reading in my hometown! I hope to see some of you, and your children, there.

I’m doing somewhat outside the box marketing, so we’ll see if anything happens there. We’ll be entering some contests, but won’t jinx it by talking about that. I’ve emailed a press release to some local media, which I had a good response to with Lark. My PR background comes in handy here.  In fact, I found an article in the Grosse Pointe News from August 2024 while Googling recently that I’d not seen. 

OH! Although I have some early reviews on the back cover from some special folks, I don’t have any reader reviews yet that I’m aware of. YOURS could be the first, but it will certainly be one of the first. I’d be UBER appreciative if you’d take a few minutes to leave a rating and a short review on your favorite platform. Actually, my book isn’t added to sites other than BookBaby quite ye